When I started this blog, my intention was to cover the theme of resolutions and other…well…stuff. Hence the name of the blog. My original idea was try out the various pieces of advice out there for making yourself happier and be the guinea pig for those pieces of advice and then write about my experiences. Then as the new year approached, I decided that since I’m resolving to deal with my family’s debt situation, it would be fun to write about our experiences and efforts in our journey out of debt. But I realized that our strategy for paying off our debt was not going to make for much writing material. We’re going to stick to a budget and if successful, our bonuses and tax returns will gradually lower the debt. An occasional blog post will cover that. Then I thought…well, what other challenges do we face that I could write about? Control! We lack control over our lives. We’re extremely busy and it is very difficult to get control over our chaotic lives. So, I decided to write about our efforts to deal with that issue. But…the control issue involves too many private details that I don’t want to discuss and to be honest, I wasn’t that enthusiastic about writing on the subject anyway. So, after giving it some more thought, I’ve decided to write about……..silver linings. Good things, positive things, the lemonade being made out of lemons. What do I mean?

Our lives are filled with things to complain about. We can each rattle off a list of irritants and hardships ranging from very trivial to very serious. It is easy to dwell on these things. In the midst of difficulty (and frankly, just plain ordinary life), it easy to miss the bright spots, the blessings and the good things all around us. I am generally a happy person but I still fall into the trap of getting consumed with the bad things that are going on in my life and forgetting the blessings. It is easy to go into a funk and see the world through a very narrow lens. My goal is to keep my eyes open to the good around me and write on it. I need this for my own mental health and perhaps you do too. We live in troubling times and it is becoming increasingly important to maintain a positive, balanced perspective.

So, I’m going to write about good things. Sound good?

And here’s the kicker…if I don’t have writing material for this subject, then I am in BIG trouble!! Right?